Today’s guest blogger is a fabulous lady and an awesome friend. We came to know each other through a group we are in called TWIPS {Twitter Wedding Inspirational Pals}. In addition to being a friend, I also hired Amanda to create Fab You Bliss’s logo and the pink social media buttons you see here to the right, aren’t they fantastic? Needless to say, I highly recommend her work. So if you or anyone you know is in the market for creative work like this, she really knows her stuff!

She was also kind enough to write a wonderful DIY post for this week and lucky for you, here it is.

I’m a big fan of making something out of nothing – a little DIY is good for the soul (which is why I love all of Stephanie’s great ideas here on Fab You Bliss!!). The idea of buying something I could have made myself bums me out – sometimes this notion leaves me with half-finished projects lying around the house, but there are few feelings better than the satisfaction of creating something beautiful!

A few months back I was asked to be part of a styled shoot with some seriously amazing vendors (you can see the full shoot here!), so I went to work thinking up tons of fun ideas for the big day. One of my most favorite projects was a Vintage Book Page Table Runner – not only was it super cheap to make, but it was unbelievably easy! Today I’ll give you a play by play on how to make your own!

What You’ll Need:

A Vintage Book (Sometimes your library will give away old books for free. Also it doesn’t necessarily have to be old, it just has to look old – lol!)

1) Carefully cut the pages out of your book with an Exacto Knife (mine are already cut in the photo above). You can use a ruler to help make a straight line.

2) Decide how long you’d like your table runner to be and figure out how many pages you’ll need. Then start picking out which pages you’d like to use – things to consider when picking your pages are how full the pages are, if it’s the beginning or end of a chapter or if there are images or drawings. Remember you’ll be taping on the back side of the pages so be sure to have the side you’d like visible facing down.

3) Carefully arrange your book pages so the sides are just barely touching.

4) Next take packing tape and, leaving some extra at the top (you can tape it to the table so it won’t move around), slowly attach the pages together until all pages are taped. If you’re making a long runner you may want to go in smaller sections and then tape your sections together since it’s hard to keep the pages from moving all over the place.

5) When you’re finished carefully trim the extra tape off your ends. If your runner needs a little extra stability feel free to place smaller pieces of tape where the pages meet horizontally.

6) Now to make it pretty! You have a few options – if you’d like the design to go all around and you have a hole punch set that’s made to do so, be sure to start with the corners first. If you simply have an edge hole punch, that’s not a problem at all – just simply start at the farthest edge. Either way will look great!